About FASTR.info

When it comes to discussing health issues, I’ve found that people are like Silicon Valley start-ups: some can’t wait to go public, others prefer to stay private.

I’m innately the latter, so I was surprised to find myself willing to publish personal data on fissure repair, of all issues. But circumstances gave me an opportunity to assemble some great research, knowledge, care, and compassion offered by others into a protocol pattern that’s simple to start and easy to customize. For me, it worked, and worked well. Ultimately, I could not not share what I learned.

For now, the FASTR.info website will stay focused on fixing fissures, and I’ll plan on keeping its related assets available and updated as long as I detect enough need, interest, traffic, and funds. If your goal of a fissure-free existence extends to anyone whose life might intersect yours—family members, friends, bosses, pilots, truck drivers, teachers, bankers, doctors, lawyers, general contractors, and government officials, for example—then I hope you’ll consider purchasing the FASTR e-book, audiobook, or affiliated items to help keep FASTR.info alive. Please see the links below.

But there may be something here worth exploring that reaches beyond a single condition. What’s that?

At the time of publication (early 2019), content available on almost any health topic is immense and growing. But finding credible knowledge—and then translating it into personal success—can be time-consuming and difficult. So how can high-value content be made more discoverable and more usable by everyday people?

Today, medical professionals, like IT pros past and present, still serve as the essential bridge between truly powerful tools and everyday users. App and content creators are working hard to simplify health-related data, and entrepreneurs no doubt aspire to add artificial intelligence, machine learning, and surgery-capable robots to our future medical mix. But maybe there’s an achievable near-term model that combines professional power and personal experience without a heavy touch of technology: simple, flexible protocol patterns.

Like great modern software, protocol patterns would be designed through a deliberate process to coalesce vast amounts of multi-disciplinary professional knowledge, along with learnings from real people, into a simple, actionable, and empathetic approach. This approach, similar to an algorithm and usable by almost anyone, would lead to repeatable, measurable experiences, even if the experiences themselves were highly personalized. A protocol could be started before, during, or after a doctor’s visit, giving subsequent doctor-patient transactions a shared language and a familiar foundation. Multiple content styles that support the same pattern might offer a helpful range of functional or technical depth to patients according to their needs and interest. What’s more, protocol patterns could be combined with one another to address situations where multiple health issues are occurring together.

Would it work?

I was an Apple employee for more than a decade, and I remember Steve Jobs expressing his interest in the consumer market because, unlike enterprise IT, consumers signal their personal likes directly through their own purchases.

Similarly, if given the option to directly shape and measure a personal protocol instead of following a generalized course of treatment, I would be surprised if engagement didn’t go higher, especially if time-, cost-, and pain-saving results were quickly realized through personal effort and experimentation.

So as my own measurement, if purchases of the FASTR e-book, audiobook, or affiliated items rise appreciably, I’ll take that as a signal to explore protocol patterns further.

If you’d like to contribute in other ways, constructive feedback is welcome. Of course, if you have healthcare questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact a qualified medical professional.

For the curious, I currently reside with my family in California. Other details are still in stealth mode, at least for now.

But enough about me. Time is precious. Thanks for giving FASTR some of yours.

Last updated: June 2019